Exelon, the U.S.’s Largest Owner of Nuclear Plants, Is Downgrading Its Commitment

21 June 2013

(LPAC)—In an ominous indication of the British financial Empire’s determination to send the world back to the Stone Age, Exelon, the large energy conglomerate that owns 20 of the U.S.’s 104 nuclear plants, announced on June 12 that it will not "uprate" (raise the capacity) at four of its reactors, as previously planned.

The reason given for Exelon’s decision is that it was "based on market conditions," including that natural gas was so comparatively cheaper, that the most efficient form of producing electricity should be abandoned. The company also attacked the "artificially depressed power prices resulting from subsidized wind energy."

The plants Exelon decided not to uprate—a process which massively increases their productive activity—are at Limerick, Pa., and LaSalle, Illinois. In 2011, Exelon cancelled uprates in Clinton, Illinois and Three Mile Island.

This announcement is the tip of the iceberg. Over the recent period, four of the nation’s 104 nuclear plans have been closed—2 at San Onofre, one at Crystal City, Fla., and one in Wisconsin. The last of these was operating perfectly and had just had its license extended—the reasons given were again purely "market" based.

The Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey, the oldest in the nation, is also set to be shut down in 2019—unless maneuvers are made to shut it earlier. [nbs]